Purl Up With A Good Yarn

Look Ma, No Fingers!

Pattern: Maine Morning Mitts (Link takes you to PDF of free pattern)

Yarn/Fiber: 160 yards of my handspun worsted weight made from Spunky Eclectic BFL in the Thermograph colorway.

Needles: 7

Gauge: ~5 sts/inch

Very quick knit and easy pattern. The thumb gusset is cleverly done and keeps in pattern. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to make a gift in a short amount of time.

Made from my own handspun using a Spunky Eclectic Club Colorway from 2008, Thermograph.

 

Click the picture for Ravelry page.

Stashalong Update

So far, so good! I've been using stash yarns for projects and I've managed to only buy 3 skeins of yarn this month. I think I may try this again in February with an exception since the shop I work in has a semi annual sale and I get more of a discount during the sale!

Details of current projects later this week with pictures!

Stashalong

Well, I'm starting off the New Year by breaking the rules. I'm joining the Stashalong even though the sign ups officially closed on Jan 1.

I was away for the holidays so I totally missed the boat on this one.

Since I'm not officially in the Stashalong, I'm making up my own rules.

1. I'm only trying this out for 1 month. A 3 month commitment scares the bejeezus out of me. I'll re evaluate after Feb 1st. I work in a yarn shop. Do I have to tell you how hard it is not to buy yarn??

I have a lot of things on my "To Knit" List and most of them are already in my stash.

• A shawl with the Helen's Lace that was my anniversary present
• A second sweater out of Peace Fleece for Matt
• A sweater for me out of the Kid Classic or Calmer that is in my stash
• Clapotis from the Silk Garden I have on order ( I know, so last year, but I want one so bad!)
• At least 1 pair of socks/month

I only have one thing that really needs to be finished and that is the Blissful Jacket that only needs the sleeves done. Oh, and a pair of fingerless gloves for a dear friend!

So there you have it. For the next month, I'm knitting from stash and I'm knitting for me.

What I Did On My End Of Summer Vacation

Twice now I have lost this post. I think that is a sign for me to walk away from the computer before I chuck it across the room.

To my Pittsburgh Secret Pal, the answers to the questionaire are on my About page, the link is in the sidebar on the right. Over there -->

I was trying to post a few pictures from vacation but you'll have to wait for those since I'm just going to post them to Flickr over the weekend.

Since this really is a knitting blog (and I try to keep the content to mostly knitting), I'm going to post my vacation knitting instead.

Pattern: Hands Free Hipster bag by iKnititiave
Yarn Used : Berocco Suede (1 1/2 balls used)
Needle Size : US 7's
Started/Finished : Sept 2005/Sept 2005

This was a really quick & easy bag to knit up. I made it as a gift for my Mum. It was supposed to be my car knitting but I didn't get much of it done with Ada in my lap the whole way up there. It still needs the lining put in and a button or tassel.

This is my vacation knitting. As a last minute whim the day before we left, I bought 4 skeins of Plymouth Encore to make my little brother a sweater for his birthday in October. I used the set in sleeve pattern from Ann Budd's Handy Book Of Sweater Patterns. It was really easy and was good mindless knitting for the entire trip. I just have to seam it together now.

My handpaintedyarn.com merino laceweight was waiting for me when we got home! Isn't it gorgeous? I love them both. The top is Cortezas and the bottom is Brown Berries. Oiyi was right when she said that they aren't very attractive in the skein but once you wind them up into a yarn cake, boy do they get gorgeous. I'm going to make a shawl/wrap like this one with the Cortezas asap. I tried to make it into a Kiri shawl but I just wasn't feeling it with the varieagation. I think a plain knit will be much more effective.

Other things that were waiting for me when I got home :

Three skeins of Geranium sock yarn from Knit Picks that I won by sending in afghan squares for the John Glick Memorial Blanket project over at Annie's blog! Thanks Annie and thanks Tam for donating the prize. Geranium is one of the Sock Garden colors I've been coveting for a while now!

Speaking of Knit Picks, they sent me color cards for their new fall collection for free! I guess it is a marketing ploy to get me to buy more yarn from them (like I need an excuse). I thought I wanted some Oregon Coast Shadow yarn before and now I know I want it. Thanks Knit Picks! Did anyone else get these too?

This wasn't waiting for me when I got home, I bought it on vacation but for some reason it didn't make it into the yarn pyramid (see below) picture. It's some Frog Tree Alpaca Fingering weight and a pattern for a raglan baby sweater. There was a model of the sweater in the shop done in the same yarn and it was adorable and soft. This might be another baby gift for a winter baby of a friend.

And finally, the vacation acquisitions :

There's the handpaintedyarn.com laceweight yarn cakes on the left. On top of the pyramid we have 1 skein of Koigu 334 from Newbury Yarns on Newbury Street in Boston ( Lovely, lovely shop, highly recommended but only if you have a lot of time to shop). It was the only skein they had and I love that colorway so much I bought it.

Underneath the Koigu is Artyarns Ultramerino 4, a fingering weight superwash purchased from Adventures in Knitting in Harwichport (Lovely little shop, lots of nice yarns). Also purchased was the Frog Tree Fingering Alpaca pictured above.

Below the Artyarns is some mystery yellow fingering weight and some Kroy Sock yarn bought at The Yarn Basket in Mashpee (that was the really really unorganized shop that I poked around in for a while,  not recommended to the faint of heart but if you like poking around & grumpy old ladies this is the place for you). The mystery yarn was $1/ball! I knitted up a swatch last night so I can chuck it in the washer to see if it is superwash. I'm hoping it is because I have a mystery baby (sex unknown) that I need a gift for. I've never used Kroy sock yarn before so I was excited when I happened upon it in a dark corner of the shop.

At the bottom left of the yarn pyramid is some Black Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash in Lichen. Matt liked that color and I offered to knit him some wool socks for his hiking boots. Purchased from Blue Heron Yarn Studio in Hyannis (another gorgeous shop, my favorite on the Cape plus they are moving next week so they have a sale right now, super knowledgable owner).

Finally, we have my anniversary present from Matt, a skein of Helen's Lace in Tuscany. Yum Yum Yum is all I have to say about Helen's lace. I'm actually going to trade it in for the Aslan colorway which is the one I have been coveting ever since we got it into the shop. For some reason, my boss talked Matt out of that colorway! Thanks Matt! I love it and I can't wait to use it.

If you can believe it, this isn't all the yarn I bought. However, the rest of the yarn is for gifts. Have a great weekend everyone! I'll let you know when I get vacation pictures uploaded to Flickr in case you want to check them out. Read the extended entry for a meme that Cheryl tagged me for last week.

Guilty as Charged

I said I would post pictures of recent stash enhancement earlier in the week but somehow I never got around to it. Dear Heather has not let me forget though so here it is:

From top to bottom we have : Dale Baby Ull, Kathmandu Aran Tweed, Calmer(there are 12 more skeins! it was on sale!), Lang Tosca, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock(the Flames colorway, yum), Rowan Summer Tweed, Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere, Tahki Cotton Classic and some Silk Garden in the middle. With the exception of the Calmer, everything else is a single skein or at most 2 skeins. Some things have no purpose or project in mind, but they were 40-50% off and I've been thinking about making a few throw pillows for my couch.

The main reason I went on the YNBA is because I was going to Rhinebeck but that doesn't seem too likely now. So I practised a little retail therapy to get over my sadness at not heading out to sheep & wooly goodness with my friends.

Look what else also arrived in the mail this week :

It's a giftie from my Secret Pal! I love it! I was really excited to see the book in the box because it was definitely something I had planned on buying someday. I really have no excuse now about dyeing yarn. Matt and I are already talking about planting a dyer's garden next year in the yard somewhere.
Thanks so much, Pal O' Mine! Can't wait to find out who you are!

Matt and I are heading out to Heather's house tonight for spinning & knitting. (Matt will just hang out with Heather's husband and eat the food, I still can't get him to spin or knit). I don't know if I will spin or knit. I admit to not having used my spinning wheel since last month when the girls came over. I might work on Matt's socks. He even had to wind up his own yarn yesterday so now all I've got to do is knit them.

Have a great weekend! Stay cool!

New additions to the stash

La Laine superwash merino - $2/skein

 

Lana d'Oro alpaca/wool - $1.83/skein

Bernat Denim Style & Noro Silk Garden - $1/skein

The joy from only spending $25 on 13 skeins of quality yarn - Priceless

***

The Pittsburgh East Knitting Guild had it's annual yarn auction last night and these are the bargains I scored. Members bring in yarn they don't want anymore and the guild sells it off to other members. The sellers can keep 50% of the proceeds or donate 100% to the guild. I didn't sell anything because I couldn't find anything in my stash that I was ready to depart with yet. A whole bag of gorgeous quality sock yarns (at least enough for 10 pairs) sold for $50, it was probably worth $100 at least.

Bonus

We had a nice Easter yesterday. Matt's parents came over and we made dinner. Well, Matt made it really. He's been such a trooper. He did pretty much everything yesterday. No, you can't have him. He's mine.

There is also a contest until the end of today. See the end of this entry for more info.

Did anyone else ever get popcorn bunnies as a kid? You know, like popcorn balls only bunny shaped? I have been looking for them here in PA and can't find them. I told my Mum to send some if she saw them in the clearance sales.

The foot is doing a bit better. It doesn't help when the animals jump on it in the middle of the night though. Thanks for the well wishes!

Not only is my foot out of commision, but I caught the Clap too. Yes, I am making a Clapotis. It's made out of Crystal Palace Mikado Ribbon yarn, color 7306 Flame. I'm up to the straight part and I just dropped my first stitch yesterday.

One of the perks of working in a yarn shop is that you get first dibs on the Sale bin. I got my yarn for Clapotis from our Sale bin for about $20 and last week, I scored 7 skeins of Nature Spun Worsted for $21. I have 3 in the light brown and 2 each in the dark brown and grey.  I'm thinking I might make Matt another jumper out of this unless I can find a suitable patter for myself first.